UCLA Women's Basketball: Why Lauren Betts Didn't Start Vs USC

UCLA is struggling might register its first loss of the year, the way this is going.

If you were wondering why your UCLA Bruins women's basketball team didn't put their best foot forward in today's ongoing matchup against the USC Trojans by starting their top player, sophomore ex-Stanford center Lauren Betts, there is an apparent method to head coach Cori Close's madness. 

Betts is playing, albeit in limited minutes, riding pine for much of the way. To wit, she first entered today's matchup at the 7:58 mark in the game's opening quarter off the bench.

It turns out that Betts, like her Pac-12 All-Defense USC counterpart Rayah Marshall, is struggling with an unspecified illness, per Luca Evans of The Orange County Register. Unlike Marshall, Betts is in fact powering through.

The Trojans, sans Marshall, currently lead by 15, 34-19, at halftime.

With Betts playing as a reserve today, Close opted to shift 6'4" starting power forward Angela Dugalic up a position to center, while moving reserve forward Lina Sontag into the starting lineup at the four.

Through her first 14 games of the 2023-24 season, the 6'7" Betts is averaging 16 points on an unreal 70.9% clip (the second-best such rate in the entire NCAA), along with nine rebounds and 2.1 blocks.